Academic prosperity is possible

Tshwarelo Hosia | Monday March 18, 2024 06:00

There is absolutely no empirical evidence or justification that students in a particular environment are less teachable than those found elsewhere.

Students all over the world have demonstrated the capability to respond positively to a school climate that seriously takes care of their well being while also recognising their value and potential.

Academic prosperity is possible and achievable if schools handling students genuinely embrace the potential of every student to succeed. If sufficiently loved, encouraged and motivated to believe in a world of possibilities coupled with their subjection to a consistent and robust classroom instructional regimen, students have the potential to overcome every learning hurdle and achieve the highest standard of performance. Students join a school as a cohort but each of the students remain an independent entity with peculiar needs requiring recognition and some degree of attention.

Therefore, a supporting school culture embraces with passion and without any reservations student individualities and special needs. It does not take material support to recognise students as separate entities. A welcoming and accommodating culture makes the difference. Somebody told me that even a smile can make a profound difference and students do better when teachers know and call them by their names. There is no one single factor that is insurmountable enough to derail a school on a mission and a purpose and results driven school principal. It is unequivocally obvious that a school can only become its own worst enemy. The school climate not any external factor is the only strong and insurmountable factor, which can successfully frustrate students’ dreams and ambitions. The one-thing schools should be alive to is that students are a powerful yet untapped learning resource. No student enters a school empty handed. Schools have to work on what students bring to the learning desks.

Students have ambitions too. The dreams students could have harboured and nurtured before entering school premises can either fizzle out or blossom depending on the school reception or how students perceive their school climate. Perceptions they say are more important than reality. First impressions last longer.

This week is a very important week for senior secondary schools. As they open their doors to new Form Four students, school principals and their charges should set the right tone and should endeavour to swiftly address and uproot any negative perceptions they may be aware of about their school. Fixing a school begins and ends with fixing and resetting the culture within the school. It involves graduating from a culture of negativity, which identifies students as a problem to be dealt with and not a resource to be developed and refined. Schools have a propensity to think that problems imported from outside are more overwhelming than those orchestrated from within.

This is not a good diagnosis of the problems bedevilling schools. An enemy within the family is more dangerous than one operating from a distance. A school is nothing outside until it is something inside. The stark reality is that the distracting and disrupting force within the school premises is more powerful and lethal than outside influencers. There are elements within a school content with maintaining the status quo even when a school is presenting year in and out a persistent culture of academic achievement. These are elements stuck in the past and not amenable to new ideas.

The thinking of sticking with the past and present could be fuelled by lack of confidence in the ability to do better than yesterday or strategy fatigue. Some genuinely believe they are working in schools that are beyond redemption and that nothing can be done to inject a new lease on life. Strategy fatigue is a situation where so many novel ideas have been tried and none worked as expected. Repeated failures culminate sadly into a culture of despondency.

A school by its nature should remain a beacon of hope and inspiration to its students. It is out of character for school to believe that its problems are insurmountable. Circumstances of despondency or a diagnosis of no hope require leaders with extraordinary abilities. I think Kgari Sechele (KS2) found the right principal at the right time. Igniting a spirit of renewal and eliminating excuses at every turn should be the primary goals of school principals. I believe it is safe to conclude that Principal Baitse Mosa Kebobone succeeded in wiping off any culture that had kept Kgari Sechele in the basement for many years. Thanks to her leadership prowess and persistence, Bakwena have become a happy and proud people. It took hard work and perseverance to shed the stigma of non-performance that characterised Kgari Sechele for a couple of years.

Whoever might have harboured and entertained the notion that the students fail because they are not teachable must think again because KS2 has shown the world that nothing is possible.

To succeed and prosper academically, schools must embark honestly without any fear or favour on some internal cleansing to eliminate any negative tendencies and ideas, which do not encourage a school to stand tall and rise to its challenges. Again for purposes of emphasis, if there is any one factor that can block students’ possibilities and frustrate their ambitions is their school climate. A school must be that enabler, ready to unleash the potential of students and no one lamenting over this and that especially about issues outside its jurisdiction. Yes, other factors can influence learning outcomes adversely but the internal factors are more compelling and overbearing.

A school should never shirk its responsibility of providing good teaching no matter what. No resource constraints can overcome the courage of a determined teaching force. Our teachers are unsung heroes and heroines endowed bountifully not only with a spirit of benevolence and love but also equipped in stupendous proportions the amazing innovative and improvisation prowess. No problem can withstand the power and faith of our teaching profession. I hope many schools would learn from KS2 and focus relentlessly on raising the rigour of instruction while endeavouring to raise the morale of teachers and students. There is no justification for schools to continue with the indignity of failing to change lives for the better. Doing with much less to achieve much more should be the standard practice. Otherwise, I wish the Form Fours a happy beginning and to parents, I say, when called on to assist where you can in terms of resource mobilisation, please do respond.